With obesity being a critical health issue across the globe, it is no surprise that the popularity of a variety of weight loss diets is skyrocketing day by day. This article will talk about one of them called the ‘Leptin diet’. No, it is not an unscientific weight loss method that makes people aim at losing weight with the minimal health concern. Rather, it is a ‘healthy and smart’ approach towards weight loss. Feeling curious about it? Let’s get started:

What Is The Leptin Diet All About?

The Leptin Diet is a simple weight loss diet program, which mostly focuses on two things i.e. ‘what foods are being eaten’ and ‘when is the food being eaten’ by an overweight individual instead of the amount of his / her food intake. The idea was brainstormed and devised by the leptin-hormone-expert Byron J. Richards, who is also a Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist as well as the founder of a supplement company named ‘Wellness Resources’.

Leptin, chemically characterized as a tiny 16-kDa protein molecule, is mainly a hormone derived in our fat cells and hence, is called adipokine. Typically, the human brain gets a signal by leptin hormone once the stomach becomes filled with enough food. However in the case of overweight people, it doesn’t work the same way as the leptin gauge malfunctions causing resistance to the hormone, thereby leading to overeating. This leptin diet program is a diet with reduced carbohydrates, which includes a large variety of meal options to help overweight people take charge of their food consumption. As a result, they gain more power over their body and become able to meet their weight loss goals in a healthy manner.

Also Read – Simple and Effective Indian diet Plan for Weight Loss Here

Basic Rules Of Leptin Diet

The leptin diet program stands on 5 basic yet important rules. To be more precise, these 5 rules form the core of the diet. Unlike other calorie manipulation schemes available in the market, it puts emphasis on the style of eating in order to get more energy from less food. Here is a closer look:

Never Eat After Dinner

Finish your dinner at least 3 hours prior to going to bed and quit the habit of eating after your last meal. There should be a gap of 11 to 12 hours between your breakfast and dinner so that leptin can follow its unique 24-hour pattern easily. It coordinates with a number of other hormones in order to give us a rejuvenating sleep as well as make the task of nighttime repair smooth. However, a misguided leptin signal will cause extra cravings for food. Therefore, any sort of midnight eating can promote the storage of calories as fat deposits and minimize the effects of diet as the leptin hormone works the least at that time.

Eat 3 main meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) a day, maintain a gap of 3 to 6 hours between them, and say absolutely ‘no’ to snacking. Our body is designed to clear triglycerides (tiny fat blobs) from the bloodstream during the day to avoid leptin resistance resulted from the clogging of the hormone into our brain. But when we keep on snacking in between our meals, we actually fail to keep a track of what we are consuming, which causes hormonal switches in our body. It reduces the leptin levels in our body and the hormone starts malfunction eventually.

Do Not Eat Large Meals

Stick to consuming smaller portions of food instead of eating large meals consistently. If you try to overcompensate your habit of eating only 3 meals a day with no snacking in between them by having large dishes at once, you will end up messing up with your leptin production. Also, make sure that you stop eating just before your stomach becomes completely full. Typically, our brain gets the signal of feeling full and satiated in 10-20 minutes. It is important to eat slowly and finish it as you start getting the signals at your meals before this time span.

Have a Protein-Rich Breakfast

Make it a point to eat more than 25 grams of protein every day during breakfast in order to keep your cravings throughout the day in check. It is a protein-rich breakfast, not a high-carbohydrate one, that can boost the metabolism of an overweight individual by 30% for almost 12 long hours. So, starting your day with proteins like eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, butter, peanut butter, almond butter, etc. along with fruits and complex carbs will increase your leptin production significantly.

Reduce Carbohydrate Intake

Limit your intake of carbohydrates, especially grains, and other major resources and replace them with carb and fibre-rich veggies and fruits. This is of utmost importance as it helps in balancing the amounts of insulin and leptin hormone in our body, thereby keeping the body weight under control. You may rely on bread, rice, pasta, corn, etc. for this purpose.

Also Read – Food Guide: What To And What Not To Include In Your Diet For Clogged Pores Here

A digital media professional, an ardent beauty lover and a passionate foodie - this is what describes Nilankeeta in a nutshell. She is in a serious relationship with music and can't think of a life without family, friends, and online shopping.